Police said that the bodies have decomposed, and hence unfit to be sent to the autonomy department of KEM hospital

The woman had, in her suicide note, requested that her and her daughter’s bodies be sent to the anatomy department of KEM hospital for the students(HT File)

A 45-year-old doctor, Dr Jasmine Patel, who along with her daughter and husband, was found hanging in a rented apartment in Kamothe on Sunday, had in her suicide note requested that her and her daughter’s bodies be sent to the anatomy department of KEM hospital for the students. But the police said on Monday that they will not do that as the bodies had decomposed.

Ashok Naik, senior police inspector of Kamothe police station, said, “There are some formalities in sending bodies for such studies. A specific form has to be filled up by the family when the patient is alive and then the body to taken for anatomy after death. That was not done in this case.”

“Also, KEM authorities have told us that they don’t accept decomposed bodies. We have now realized that the mother-daughter duo committed suicide on the night of April 20, and the husband killed himself the next day. Since bodies have decomposed now, we have decided to hand them over to their family members,” he said.

After completing her MBBS, Patel joined a government hospital in MP as an assistant civil surgeon. After that she became the medical superintendent in a civic hospital there. Before shifting to Mumbai, she was holding the post of director of a private hospital in Jalgaon.

In Mumbai, the family first stayed in Chembur. They shifted to Navi Mumbai around seven years ago and Patel had been running a clinic since then.

Naik said, “Their names were Jasmine Uttewar and Sunil Uttewar till 2009. However, Jasmine adopted the surname Patel and her husband changed his name to Indrajeet Dutta after that. We are now trying to find out why did they do that.”

The police also suspect that Dutta might have a criminal record. “The family had mentioned in their suicide notes that they had left white clothes to wrap their bodies. They also left some clothes and cash for the maid and some books and artificial flowers for a neighbour. Their personal belongings were found in a trunk,” he said.

Ravindra Srinivash Shetyam, the chairman of the society, was all praises for the deceased. He said, “Patel used to ask me about my life after retirement. Her husband used to accompany her to the clinic. But they never participated in the celebrations and events we organised at the society.”

“The girl never came out of the house. We hardly ever saw her in the compound and she has not even attended school after they shifted to this building,” he said.

Inspector Naik said, “We are in a process of examining their call data records (CDR) to find out people they were in touch with as that may give us some clue about the reason behind the drastic step. We will get more details once their family members reach the city.”